Planning on the fly
by bhut
Summary: Sequel to 'A Wrench in Plans' - Dracula is nowhere near to be done or knocked out, but he needs allies. He might find them in Atlantis. Canon divergence. Spoilers alert.


**Planning on the fly**

_Disclaimer: all characters belong to Marvel._

_Note: the story contains spoilers for the current Marvel Avengers comics._

Once upon a time, as Namor, the king of Atlantic, was planning his next plan, who should make an appearance but Dracula, the vampire lord.

"Hey there!" he said brightly, apparently not bothered by being underwater, (you never know with vampires). "Got some time to spare?"

"Shouldn't you be talking to someone else? Attuma, maybe?" Namor asked grouchily, (yes, the former warlord and rival had buried the hatchet with the Sub-Mariner and all, but old prejudices died hard).

"I," Dracula said flatly, (but with a certain sparkle in his eye that made him look even more disturbing than it normally would), "already have plenty of bloodthirsty barbarians under my command, pun intended. I don't need to go outsourcing for them."

"Then why are you here?" Namor had about enough of Dracula's attitude, and they have not even started to talk properly.

"I want to make an alliance with you." This was said so straightforwardly and plainly, especially by the vampire lord's standards, that Namor was almost caught flat-footed here.

"The f- I mean, why?"

"Why with you specifically, or just why generically?" Dracula replied brightly. (And since he was an old, old vampire, this was seriously disturbing).

"Take your pick," Namor reclined, deciding to be at ease against his interlocutor, (or rather – pretend to be; whomever else he had expected after the Squadron Supreme fiasco and all, Dracula was not it).

"You're very kind-"

"Refreshments-?"

"Looks like you're warming up to me already!" Dracula's eyebrows went up, by choice. "Good, but let's not be hasty – there's been too much haste already, had there not?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Sea king, you have your own – set, your own team, your own crew, have you not?"

"Yes, and so do you. What is it to you?" Namor tried to drill the vampire with his gaze, but it was not working, because, well, vampire.

"It's not enough, is it?" the response surprised the king of Atlantis again. "Even in recent past, teams rose and fell – that Spider-Boy person-"

"Spider-Man-"

"-had repeatedly defeated teams of his homegrown super-villains who tried to take him down. What were they called, anyhow? Serious Six? Sinister Six? No matter, they still failed – but these days, it is something new, you know? It is not one on one, or one against many, but many against many, and so far? You're losing, and so do I."

"Really," Namor still was not convinced. "That's not what I heard about your encounter with the Winter Guard-"

"The approach of Winter Guard is thus: a bunch of semi-expandable idiots and Avenger wannabees coupled with some very competent and very lethal entities," Dracula spoke with such lightness in his tone, that Namor immediately understood that the vampire lord had been made a fool of, if not worse, by the entities in question. "So far, you haven't been on their receiving end – yet; rather, you have had to deal with the so-called Squadron Supreme, and found wanting, have you not?"

"Go on." Unlike Dracula, Namor was not even trying to sound flippant, here. "What are you getting at?"

"What have you found at your site that you have taken from Roxxon?" Dracula leaned forwards, looking genuinely curious at the Atlantean. "Me and mine – we have Chernobyl, the site where the dimensional walls between the world of the mortals and the Negative plane are the thinnest, where we, the undead, can be at our strongest!"

"And by 'we, the undead', you mean exclusively the vampires, or the rest of your kind – the zombies, the ghouls, and so on as well?" Namor raised an eyebrow; so did Dracula.

"That is a palpable hit," he admitted, seemingly unshaken. "It's true, us vampires have always been dismissive of the lesser kinds of undead in the past, practically always, but now that we're building our kingdom, this will change… eventually. The Shadow Colonel," he shot a piercing look at Namor, but his interlocutor revealed nothing on his face, "had been overeager in his desires for _change_ and _revolution_, and now we got a mess that won't be fixed in a hurry, so we must first clean our house before inviting guests in – and you _know_ just how important is guest-right to us vampires… That's my hand, what is yours?"

"San Diablo, or rather – its' coastline," Namor said simply. "As you may know, Roxxon may have opened a hole into the Elemental planes in that piece of dry land, even more artificial and godforsaken than the rest of your surface world is. But – Elemental planes means the plane of water, which is important, because it is home…" he looked away. "I won't act stupid before you, vampire lord, I know that my – team is breaking up; Tiger Shark, for example, just might be a double-agent for the Avengers, but as the Seven seas are my witness, I'm about done with them and the surface world by now and before long-"

"You're racing against the clock, primarily?" Dracula clearly thought this over. "Good, I can work with that. Shall we shake on it now?"

"…Why?" Namor still was not convinced. "We got nothing in common-"

"Save that we're still the underdogs against the Avengers, and the SS – pardon me, the Squadron Supreme, and even the competent elements of the Winter Guard," Dracula didn't back down. "Both of us need someone to run interference for each other while our plans continue apace, so let's go from there. Every oak was once an acorn and every bull was once a calf, no?"

"Yes," Namor reluctantly took his interlocutor's hand and shook on it. "I'll probably regret it before long, but you're still better than Rogers is."

It was not often, or even regular, that Dracula became surprised, but Namor managed it, this time, as Dracula himself admitted it.

"This is going to be an interesting partnership, Sub-Mariner," he added, clearly thoughtful.

Namor just nodded silently back.

End.


End file.
